FEATURE ARTICLES

Concerns originally raised by Welsh Health Estates personnel over the risk of patients, and particularly the elderly and children, burning themselves on the body of mixer taps incorporating TMV3 thermostatic mixing valves (TMVs), have, suppliers claim, seen a concerted recent drive to improve such devices’ design.

IHEEM Council member Bill Millar, governance and compliance manager at the United Lincolsnhire Hospitals NHS Trust, has recently revised and refreshed the IHEEM awards documentation, which explains the criteria for entry to the various categories, describes how entries are judged, and details the awards on offer. Health Estate Journal reports.

Bob Heavisides, director of facilities, Milton Keynes Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and senior research fellow, Medical Architecture Research Unit (MARU), at London South Bank University, considers, in a précis of a paper presented at last year’s Healthcare Estates conference, how a new master planning approach may bring significant benefits to the healthcare estate, arguing that, against today’s fastchanging backdrop, typical existing estates strategies may no longer be fully “fit-for-purpose”.

Louise Corfield, IHEEM business development manager, describes the launch of a new IHEEM approval scheme which should help members faced with a bewildering array of training course choices, in some topic areas, to identify those offering the optimal content.

Ian Greggor, project director at international property and construction consultancy Cyril Sweett, discusses how, with the advent of world-class commissioning (WCC), the primary care estate may be most efficiently, and effectively, managed in the future, and the complexities and challenges commissioners and providers may encounter along the way.

Good acoustic conditions in hospitals and other healthcare facilities are known not only to benefit patients by creating an environment that facilitates rest, sleeping, consultation and treatment, but also clinical and nursing staff.

Specialist in the design and construction of modular healthcare buildings MTX Contracts has recently completed, on time and on budget, Stockport NHS Foundation Trust’s impressive new four-storey orthopaedic and surgical facility at Stepping Hill Hospital.

A far-reaching strategy which aims to modernise an estate comprising around 150 properties spread over a 2,000 square mile radius over the next 5 to 6 years and, simultaneously, deliver 100% “safe, sound and supportive” single-patient care to people suffering from a wide range of mental health illnesses, won the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys (TEWV) NHS Foundation Trust the Best Estates Strategy Award at the 2008 Building Better Healthcare (BBH) Awards.

A “highly effective” three-way partnership between architects Anshen+Allen, the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and Laing O’Rourke, has created a non-institutional and welcoming new cancer treatment and renal services centre in Newcastle upon Tyne which, despite the gruelling nature of some of the therapies set to be offered, has a character and feel early users describe as “more like a four-star hotel” than a conventional healthcare facility. Jonathan Baillie reports.

With the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 imposing onerous fire safety responsibilities on the owners, managers and operators of UK healthcare facilities, a recent joint IHEEM and NAHFO (National Association of Healthcare Fire Officers) seminar saw experts ranging from a prominent London estates and facilities director to the Department of Health’s fire policy lead offer in-depth guidance to senior estates and facilities personnel. Jonathan Baillie reports.

Radiotherapy equipment manufacturer Varian Medical Systems has been using linear guidance systems from specialist bearing producer the Schaeffler Group on its linear accelerator patient couches for over a decade without a single failure, with the ultra-precise patient positioning the systems guarantee contributing towards enabling highly accurate targeting of tumours, allowing cancer treatments that previously took 20 minutes to be undertaken in as little as two minutes today. Jonathan Baillie reports.

Rubbermaid Commercial Products describes how Initial Hospital Services’ implementation of a revised cleaning regime at Croydon’s Mayday University Hospital using its recently developed, chlorine-resistant Microfibre Cleaning system has reduced cross-contamination risks, improved safety, reduced worker tiredness, enhanced efficiency, and cut the amount of water and chemicals used.

Hospital parking With the British public far more likely than they were 10 to 15 years ago to use a car even for a short journey, it seems inevitable that it will gradually become more and more difficult to find a hospital car park space. Jonathan Baillie discusses the key issues for health estate, facilities and transport managers dealing with car parking and traffic management on often congested, and increasingly

Energy saving The installation of what is believed to be the largest array of solar thermal panels currently in use at a UK NHS hospital has taken place at an ideal time for the facility in question, Harlow’s Princess Alexandra Hospital, with the hospital’s gas bill alone having risen by 153% over the past nine months thanks to soaring energy prices, and the estates department keen to mitigate the effects in any way possible. Jonathan Baillie reports.

11. 3. Lam, of the Department of Building Services Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, provides a step-by-step guide to designing resilient healthcare buildings in areas prone to natural disaster.

The first results from an 18-month trial at Birmingham’s Selly Oak Hospital, which has seen a range of items in one ward, including taps, door handles, sink fittings, push plates and light switches made from “conventional” plastic and stainless steel materials substituted with copper replacements, has proven beyond doubt the metal’s effectiveness in destroying pathogens in a clinical environment. Health Estate Journal reports.

A medical education and clinical teaching centre building currently under construction at the University of Aberdeen has been awarded the highest national rating of “Excellent” in the Bespoke category in the 2008 BREEAM Awards, recognising a range of environmental measures incorporated into the design to reduce its carbon footprint and maximise its use of natural resources. Health Estate Journal reports.

Aquacair believes proper ventilation hygiene is a key tool in ensuring that healthcare premises provide a healthy, safe and comfortable environment, while also making certain, as far as is practicable, that all energy used by ventilation and air conditioning plant is put to good use. Here the company sets out the key priorities for estates and facilities managers seeking to make sure that such plant and equipment performs at optimum efficiency.

A hands-free, wireless system is improving communications, speed of response, and ultimately patient care, at the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust. At the Royal Victoria Hospital, an estimated 4,000 hours of wasted time are being saved annually within the emergency department alone. Louise Frampton reports.

The effects of humidification on hospital superbugs are being explored by some of the UK’s top academics, in what Dave Mortimer, national sales manager for Vapac Humidity Control, explains are the UK’s first such studies.